Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1887-10-01

resort of the wealthy planters, states
men, lawyers and men of letters gener-
ally throughout the South, to gather
here for that quiet social intercourse
which is to be found at this place, so
amply endowed by nature with the
spirit of repose. The fame of those old
days before the Introduction of rail
roads throughout this section of the
country enabled the vast crowd
of pleasure-seckers which surge at
high tide over the country with
each successive summer to turn their
faces in this direction is an oft-told
tale by the elders, who, as they sit at
cards or conversing in some sunny cor
ner in the evenings. love to relate the
glories of the past, believing, as all old
people do, that those of the present day
can in no wise compare with them. In
the morning the company forms itself
into pleasant little groups out on the
lawn, where the day somehow slips by
as they sit under the immense old oak
trees talking, laughing and idling away
the time, gaining, in this restful, quiet
way, the strength and health of which
not a few worn down by the more active
cares of life have come in search of.
Indeed. if one be so inclined, the dolce
far niente of life can nowhere be more
freely INDUCED in or more heartily en-
joyed than in the beautiful valley of the
Alleghenies in which the White Sulphur
Springs is situated, since earth, air and
sky all combine to this effect. This is
in the early part of the season, when the
company is numbered by the hundreds,
but as the first of August approaches the
aspect of things undergoes a gradual
but complete change. The parties which
formerly assembled each morning with
the regularity of clockwork to converse,
indulge in a friendly game of cards,
or while away the time in some
such quiet manner, grow perceptibly
fewer and smaller in number until,
presto! the first of August, has arrived,
the magician's wand passes over the
place, and they have become, as it were,
a tale that is told, relegated to the things
of the past, no more to be heard of
until the advent of the following season.
The crowd, which now begins to pour
over the springs by every incoming
train, is one bent upon more active
species of amusement. Many of them
have toiled throughout the year with
this object in view, to spend August at
the White Sulphur, and they mean to
have things lively during that time. For
aught they would care to the contrary,
the place might resolve itself into three
compartments-the dining parlor
and ball-room-with the connecting
piazzas thrown into the bargain.
In a short while from the ballroom
come the opening strains of a waltz, and
in a body the pleasure-seekers troop
down the long piazza to that Mecca,
where, few moments later, they are
whirling gayly about in the first morn
ing german of the season. The ball once
started, is never again permitted to flag
in its rapid rotations until the 25th OF
Augustine date as invariably fixed for
the cessation of social gayeties as the
laws of the Medes and the Persians-calls
halt in the merry round. Within the
past few years the custom of having those
taking part in every entertainment pho
tographed has become so universal that
it is now considered as much a part
of these morning germans and
fetes as the music which keeps
in tune the flying feet of the dancers.
Leaving the ballroom, the guests assem-
BILE on the broad steps leading down
from the piazza to the western grounds
of the hotel, grouping themselves pic
turesquely, that the pleasant event may
be perPetuated on the camera and so car
ried away with them when the season is
over. Pretty as these pictured groups
are, they yet can in no wise compare
with reality, which is one gorgeous bit of
ever-changing color-the girls in their
white dresses, with sashes of every hue
and color, the jaunty feather-laden hats
from under which the bright young faces
look out upon q world, all gayety